The Future of Education
Incorporation of drama into literature in young learner classes
Dönercan Dönük, Mersin University (Turkey)
Abstract
Dönercan Dönük
Mersin University
Turkey
It is a fact that young learners have an advantage over adults in terms of learning a foreign language, for they tend to employ first language acquisition strategies more effectively. In addition, the variety of the resources they can have access to and the ample time they can allocate compared to the adults enable this group to learn a foreign language in the same vein as they acquired their mother tongue. In this sense, if the learning conditions are simulated to the acquisition procedures, it will be easier for teachers to facilitate learning because the children have already gone through a language acquisition period, which means they are not at the initial state.
Drama, as a tool for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers can be incorporated into literature, a source for young learner classes to provide input data. The course procedure has been applied at an ITE (Initial Teacher Education ) program, and it has been observed to provide fruitful results according to the participant reflection reports. Therefore, the aim of this study is to suggest some procedures for teacher candidates to use as a multidisciplinary approach, the combination of drama and literature in their future classes.
key words: drama, literature, young learners, ITE
